22 de Agosto 2007

El "iris infrarrojo", una nueva victoria

Roy Spencer ha escrito (ejem, hace una semana), entre otras cosas, sobre el éxito del estudio que ha liderado con el objetivo de demostrar la existencia de mecanismos naturales que propician el enfriamiento en los trópicos. Mecanismos cuyos efectos los modelos climáticos han venido interpretando en sentido contrario: recalentamiento.

Como el mismo Spencer reconoce, se trata del “iris infrarrojo” que ya anticipara Richard Lindzen hace algunos años (algo comento aquí).

Abstract:

We explore the daily evolution of tropical intraseasonal oscillations in satellite-observed tropospheric temperature, precipitation, radiative fluxes, and cloud properties. The warm/rainy phase of a composited average of fifteen oscillations is accompanied by a net reduction in radiative input into the ocean-atmosphere system, with longwave heating anomalies transitioning to longwave cooling during the rainy phase. The increase in longwave cooling is traced to decreasing coverage by ice clouds, potentially supporting Lindzen's “infrared iris” hypothesis of climate stabilization. These observations should be considered in the testing of cloud parameterizations in climate models, which remain sources of substantial uncertainty in global warming prediction.

PS: no sé si alguien de RL ya ha mencionado el asunto ... no lo he comprobado.